Northwest Gbaya language

Northwest Gbaya
Native toCameroon, Central African Republic
Native speakers
(65,000 in Cameroon cited 1980)[1]
200,000 in CAR (1996), 2,000 in Congo (1993)
Dialects
  • Kàrà
  • Làì
  • (3rd variety)
Language codes
ISO 639-3gya
Glottolognort2775

Northwest Gbaya is a Gbaya language spoken across a broad expanse of Cameroon and the Central African Republic. The principal variety is Kara (Kàrà, Gbaya Kara), a name shared with several neighboring languages; Lay (Làì) is restricted to a small area north of Mbodomo, with a third between it and Toongo that is not named in Moñino (2010), but is influenced by the Gbaya languages to the south.

For male initiation rites, the Gbaya Kara use a language called La'bi.

  1. ^ Northwest Gbaya at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)